9 of the Most Audacious Space Plans Ever Proposed by Humans

Some got farther than others, but all were (or are) audacious concepts in opening up the cosmos.

Some got farther than others, but all were (or are) audacious concepts in opening up the cosmos.

1 of 9

NASA

Building a moon base

In 2006, Pres. George W. Bush laid out his vision for the future of NASA. Nearly a decade later, little of the Constellation program survives.
One of the crazier concepts was the beginnings of a moon base, laying out the future of human exploration by creating a more permanent human habitation on our only natural satellite. The base would have been called the Neil A. Armstrong Lunar Outpost. It would be located near a pole to reduce solar radiation exposure and give astronauts the possibility of collecting water, and allow for six month stays on the lunar surface, much like the ISS.

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2 of 9

NASA

A cloud city on Venus

The surface of Venus is an absolute hellscape, but the top layers of the atmosphere are shockingly balmy, with atmospheric pressure similar to Earth. Recently, two NASA scientists proposed that instead of sending so many missions to Mars, we should set our sights on building a sort of cloud city on Venus. There we could study how Venus, which used to be much more like Earth, gained the runaway greenhouse effect that turned it inhospitable.

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3 of 9

NASA

Colonizing Jupiter's moon

Europa may be the best place to find life in our solar system, but Jupiter's deadly radiation precludes exploration by live humans. But a 2003 proposal suggested that the moon Callisto serve as the staging point for a manned Jupiter outpost. Of Jupiter's four major Galilean moon, Callisto is the further from the planet. There the radiation damage is less pronounced, ices could provide a water source, and humans could control robotic probes on Europa and Ganymede without the long time lags that would crop up when trying to communicate with them from Earth. It could be the key to finding life on Europa or elsewhere.

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4 of 9

Wikimedia Commons

Sending tardigrades to Mars (almost)

We don't really want to do too many astrobiology experiments on Mars. After all, there may be bacteria there already and we don't want to contaminate the planet with Earth creatures. But The Planetary Society has been planning for years to send tardigrades, some of the most durable creatures on Earth, to the Martian moon of Phobos to see how long they survive. Tardigrades are so hardy they can survive for a time in the vacuum of space. However, a 2012 mission in which a Russian rocket would have carried them to Phobos failed.

The moon is such an intriguing candidate as a telescope host because its super-thin atmosphere cuts down on interference. So a few proposals for telescopes on the Moon have been bandied about, including a liquid mirror telescope that could peer vast distances into the cosmos.
Two two private companies may beat NASA to the punch on this one, though.

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7 of 9

Paramount Pictures

Blowing up an asteroid

Yes, Deep Impact and Armageddon were kind of ridiculous. But NASA has actually considered the possibility of blowing up an asteroid with a nuke if one gets too close, though we probably can't destroy one the size of Texas. Instead, maybe NASA will learn enough as part of its Asteroid Redirect Mission that someday the space agency will be able to deflect an oncoming impactor.

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8 of 9

Mimicking giraffes for better spacesuits

A strong layer of muscles enable the giraffe to hoist its head up so high, and MIT professor Dava Newman wants to recreate that strength in spacesuits. They would allow travelers on future missions to Mars to wear skin-tight suits instead of the bulky space fashion of today, creating more mobility for astronauts.

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9 of 9

Wikimedia Commons

Using lasers for faster space travel

The distance to other stars is so vast that interstellar travel requires some really big, really bold thinking. One NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts proposal from Y.K. Bae would use lasers to travel faster in space. A spacecraft would launch via conventional rockets. Once it's in space, lasers fired from a ground-based instrument would use the physical force of a light to push the ship faster and faster. Even if humans can't travel to the stars, such a strategy could cut down on weight and save time for missions traveling to targets like Mars and the outer solar system.

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